“This antelope head was formerly attached to a basketry heat.
It is knows as a Chi-wara (often also spelled Tyi-wara),which literally translated means “farming beast”.
The sculptures were sometimes also called Sogoni-kun, or “little animal head.” This headdress sculpture is highly abstract.
A similar tipology of Chi-wara is in the Musée du Quai Branly (Inv. no. 73.1964.14.9). A more exact identification of the style area of origin is not however indicated.

Courtesy Musée du Quai Branly

The antelope headdress was worn in performances that emphasized the importance of agriculture to the Bamana. The word “Chi-wara” has multiple meanings. It can refer to the cult of agricultural fertility in general, it can designate the mythical creature that brought farming to the Bamana, or a specific successful farmer or a particular farming tool, or it can mean the secular dance performances, songs, and costumes that even nowadays occur in celebration of a good harvest.
Just as the Chi-wara does, the Sogoni-kun also appears at agricultural festivals, albeit the Bamana borrowed the latter from their Wasulunke neighbours in southwest Mali.
The antelope headdresses were made by blacksmiths. Among the Bamana, they are generally also carvers. A characteristic of Bamana artistic and cultural life, which is also present among the Dogon, Malinke, Senufo, Tuareg, and other groups in the geographic zone knows as Sahel/Savanna, is the existence of artist “cells”.

Most Bamana artists belong to a recognized distinct class of peoples known collectively as Nyamakalaw. They do not intermarry whit Horon, the majority of the population, comprised largely of farmers and traders. As Barbara Frank writes, it is not uncommon for these artists to suggest that they are of an entirely different ethnic origin, that their ancestor existed before the Bamana, and that they were smelting iron, carving wood, and making pots before the Bamana could hunt, farm, or cook. In fact, the development of craft specialization among the Bamana was a complex process that entailed the concentration of ritual authority and technical expertise within certain clans, awarding them exclusive rights to particular domains.
This history also includes interactions – some peaceful, some violent¬- among a wide range of peoples across the region. Bamana society is today, and has long been a heterogeneous one (Frank 2001,p.45).

The Chi-wara and the Sogoni-kun produced by the Nyamakalaw communicate important local aesthetic ideas. The elegant simplicity is expressed by the term Jayan, which has connotations signifying both abstraction and reduction, alludes to the “search for the real meaning of things” (McNaughton 1988, pp.107-109).
Other terms which express aesthetic notions include Nyènyèn (design) and Jago (added decoration).
These concepts have also proven to be very attractive to Western observers and art aficionados. André Derain and Fernand Léger were among the early collectors of Chi-wara.” (Bettina von Lintig, 2011, p.202)

The perfect balance of shapes and volumes, the fantastic and unnatural movement of the horns, the solid body posture of the antelope, make this sculpture a wonderful example of the great artistic creativity and expertise of the executive of Banama people.

For this reason, because of its intrinsic and expressive beauty and rarity of this specific type, Harrie Heinemans counted this Chi-wara as a favorite among the many that had, and made the logo of his collection, as it appears on the cover of the catalog exposure to the Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal devoted to his collection in 1986.